The Pandora Core by Sean Platt & Johnny B. Truant

Author:Sean Platt & Johnny B. Truant
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sterling & Stone

TWENTY

Mathias of the Landwalkers

But things didn’t go smoothly from there.

With her hand in Eve’s, navigating the crowd of curious strangers, Eila was tempted to believe that all things were as they should be — and that although she’d grasped almost nothing the Athenian had told her, Eila trusted that she, at least, understood it. From the first moment they’d met, Eve had struck her as wise. If she said things the others disagreed with, Eila figured that was because Eve knew things they did not. If her behavior was antisocial, that was because Eve had a greater mission, and couldn’t stop to worry about niceties.

That’s how it’d seemed in the troop quarters of the Doon. And on their trip so far, with Eve there to provide the insights nobody else had. But the mood was different in Aerohead. Eve had come directly from Athenia, but it was the people around them who were ancient here. They’d lived more or less hidden away, interacting with the outside world only when they had enough, surrendered, and defected. Eila couldn’t know without asking, but it sounded like Eve’s Mathias and Avio’s were one. The legend of a man who lived a millennium ago. The others, too, emitted a wizened, emotional seasoning that felt to Eila (and to the core in her bag) like people whose sharpest edges had been smoothed by the ages.

A sea of serene faces, unsurprised by the newcomers’ arrival because in their long lives, they’d seen everything already.

“Eve,” Eila finally whispered, when their unimpeded passage through Aerohead grew too weird, “they act like we’re expected.”

“I imagine she told them.”

“The leader?”

“Pandora.”

“But Pandora is—”

“Quiet? Far? She never leaves our blood, Eila. Please. Too many questions now will undermine rather than encourage your belief. You’re not used to ‘knowing without really knowing’ as we are. Your people believe that if you cannot see and touch a thing, it must not be real. I wasn’t sure Aerohead was still occupied, until they let us in. The way Pandora’s people hear her, even now, is what you would feel on your knees at night, speaking to the Crown, if you believed in prayer. The difference is that we do not doubt Pandora. We do not wonder if she hears us, or we hear her. Now please. Just trust. Walk with me, and stay close.”

Eila did as she was told. Horatio, Walker, and Abbie remained in the main room while Eve led Eila away, Avio uninvited but welcome at the rear. Only once halfway across the milling area did it strike her just how large it was. The things Eve had said, about a person’s perception creating the physical rules of their world, were ludicrous … but nonetheless Eila had to admit she was walking through the proof.

They’d circled Aerohead twice before landing, thanks to the wind. She’d gotten a good feel for what was inside versus outside the place, and which sorts of spaces various doors would lead a person into. An Alterran team, finding the same golden gate out front, would bash through it to find a small room full of nothing.

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